Finding the right path.

This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But you said, ‘We will not listen.’” (Jeremiah 6:16-17)

Where and when this word from Jeremiah originated no-one can be quite sure. It is another of his words of warning during the reign of King Jehoiakim, who was quite unlike his godly father, Josiah. Jehoiakim and his political advisers were only interested in a life of carefree indulgence. The Mosaic traditions and righteous laws upheld during his father’s reign were being discarded and everyone was doing as they liked, including the priests and prophets at the Temple.

There is no direct evidence of Jeremiah leaving Jerusalem and wandering in the desert, but the words of this prophecy certainly do not reflect city streets. The ‘ancient paths’ is a well-known phrase for the wilderness and it is very possible that Jeremiah, like other prophets and spiritual leaders of Israel, loved the desert. For those who sought to be in communion with God, like Moses or Elijah, the solitude of the desert was a haven.

The desert was not a place of separation from God – quite the reverse – it was separation from the world. It was a place of seclusion with God where the prophets could speak with him and hear his voice clearly, without the cacophony of the city streets.

The ‘ancient paths’ is a well-known phrase for the wilderness. It is very possible that Jeremiah, like other prophets of Israel, loved the desert.

Ask for the Good Way

Jeremiah was probably thinking of the Judean wilderness south of Jerusalem, or the Desert of Paran near Beersheba. These places would have been familiar to David, the shepherd boy of Bethlehem, before he became King of Israel.

In the wilderness, there are many desert paths. Some are broad and inviting, but dangerous, running alongside a precipice. Others are narrow and difficult, but safe. The shepherds know every path in the wilderness, some of which are so narrow that the sheep have to go in single file. The good shepherd goes ahead of his sheep just as David would have done, leading them to a good pasture where there is both food and water. David beautifully expressed this in the 23rd Psalm: “He leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness…”

In his time of reflection, Jeremiah was probably thinking of the wilderness and a time when he reached a crossroads. Being more used to city streets, he would probably have stood there waiting for a shepherd to come along, to ask him for the good way. This is expressed in this prophecy, “Ask for the good way”. It would have been an ancient path over which shepherds had led their flocks for centuries.

Jeremiah might even have been familiar with the words of Isaiah some 200 years earlier, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’” (Isa 30:21).

A Voice in the Wilderness

Back in Jerusalem, the wilderness paths came into Jeremiah’s mind and he pronounced this reading, warning the nation of the dangers that lay ahead as a consequence of idolatry and unbelief. It grieved him to listen to the people and to know what would befall them. He longed to run away into the desert and to stay there. He wept before the Lord:

Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people. Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travellers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them... (Jer 9:1-2a)

The shepherds know every path in the wilderness, some of which are inviting but dangerous. The good shepherd leads his sheep to safe pasture.

Jeremiah was a lone ‘voice in the wilderness’ patrolling the city streets, warning of the terrible consequences that would befall the nation if they no longer kept the terms of the covenant with God. He knew that God would not defend an unrighteous people and therefore disaster lay ahead.

God had already sent them many warning signs, all of which had been ignored, so Jeremiah now went on to make a devastating prophecy. In his quiet time in the wilderness he had heard God calling upon the whole world of nature to observe and to learn from what he was about to do with his own covenant people, who had deliberately discarded his teaching and ignored his warnings:

Hear, O Earth: I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law. (Jer 6:19)

Truth Then is Truth Today

If God will not defend his own covenant people when they deliberately reject his teaching and despise his words, what hope is there for Gentile nations who have known the word of God for centuries and yet deliberately turn away, despising his warnings?

The tragic history of Israel shows what happened to Jerusalem and the people of Judah in Jeremiah’s own lifetime when God’s warnings were ignored. He allowed the invading army of Nebuchadnezzar to break down the walls of Jerusalem and take the people captive to Babylon. Jeremiah knew that there was no army in the world that could have conquered Jerusalem if the people had remained faithful to God.

Jeremiah’s words are as true today as they were in the 6th Century BC, because God does not change. His truth then, is truth today. He is still saying: “Ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls”.

This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. Click here for previous instalments.